The Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin would concern any country. But PM Modi must immediately rein in his media and social media supporters communalising it.

Members of Tablighi Jamaat being transported to various hospitals from the Nizamuddin Markaz in New Delhi for screening (Representational image) | Photo: Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint

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For the first time since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, the enemy that India faces isn’t Pakistan, isn’t a Muslim or Maoist or a JNU student. In coronavirus, India’s public enemy is one without an ideology, religion or nationality. Modi did not call it a ‘Chinese virus’, like Donald Trump did.

The coronavirus pandemic was, in many ways, a test for the possibility of a non-sectarian nationalism. Indians as one nation had to come together, stay home, applaud health workers and wash hands.

But that was short-lived.

The Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz, from where more than 100 positive cases of coronavirus have emerged, would be a legitimate topic of utmost concern in any country. And it definitely shouldn’t have taken place when a pandemic was claiming lives by the thousands. Yet, the manner in which it was cynically exploited to stoke naked communalism, on social media and TV channels, had a singular aim: to give a communal colour to the fight against coronavirus.

Injecting religion in a virus

‘Coronajihad’ was one of the top trending topics on Twitter Tuesday. BJP leaders such as Gautam Gambhir, B.L. Santhosh and Sambit Patra fuelled the denunciation parade, warning of a “disaster of gigantic proportions” from the “criminal negligence”. There had been a certain recklessness across religious institutions in the face of the pandemic, for instance even the Tirupati temple was open to tens of thousands of devotees at the time of the Tablighi congregation two weeks ago, but the irresponsibility of certain Muslims has been painted with menacing ideological motivations.

The opening monologue of Arnab Goswami on Republic TV can be quoted here because it mirrored the coverage on most English and Hindi news channels in the framing of the event as a Muslim conspiracy to defeat India. “They made fun of our national effort. They have compromised us all, we were just winning when they did everything to defeat us,” fumed Goswami. “They have been spreading hate against the lockdown and told their followers to do everything possible to defy the lockdown”. There was little doubt that “they” here stood in for Muslims. If it wasn’t amply clear, our ‘super-spreader’ of communal virus helpfully drew an arc connecting the “suffering citizens of India dying in ambulances from traffic jams caused by Shaheen Bagh” for months to “now dying because of the singular determination of the Tablighi Jamaat to spread the coronavirus in our country”. One prominent anchor claimed that the jamaatis were spitting from their buses, darkly insinuating their intent to infect other people.

Being the single most influential articulator of the BJP’s ideological agenda on English news television, Arnab has helped frame the BJP’s ‘national struggles’ against JNU and Shaheen Bagh to his middle-class audience. So, what Arnab Goswami’s fulminations foreshadow is how the fight against coronavirus would likely be framed in the coming period. It would no longer be ‘India against the virus’ but ‘India against the Muslims spreading the virus’.

What this reflects is the emphatic closure of any possibility of a non-sectarian, non-toxic Indian nationalism.

Nationalism based on ‘Muslim threat’

The coronavirus provided the perfect opportunity to cleanse our nationalism of the narrow-minded toxic accretions that had wholly enveloped it over the last six years. The virus, paradoxically, provided an opening for collective healing of partisan wounds. Momentarily, the seemingly existential issues of the past — the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Kashmir, JNU violence, Delhi riots — had been swept back to the recesses of public consciousness. Everyone was facing a common enemy. This was the hour for Indian nationalism to redeem itself by embracing everyone. After all, nationalism, at its best, is meant to achieve certain common goals that can only be achieved through united efforts, based on a shared understanding. We had a shared understanding of the extent of the Covid-19 threat, and agreement on the common goal of mitigating its damage. Yet, evidenced by the growing partisan and communal rancour, Indian nationalism has singularly failed to perform that uniting function.

There is simply no longer any Indian nationalism without scapegoats and targets. If the ‘Muslim villain’ does not exist in a national struggle, he must be created. Apparently, anti-Muslim bigotry is the only glue holding together Indian society, not any shared value or purpose. Without the Muslim villain, the national solidarity that was spawned by the ‘janata curfew’ shortly sputtered. The ugly class divisions of Indian society came to the fore as middle-class Indians either ignored or justified the State apathy (and excesses) towards working-class Indians. Much of the media, which has now sprung into action in the face of a ‘Muslim threat’, ignored this deprivation of the poor and whiled away its time playing ‘antakshari’ and interviewing celebrities.

Shared sacrifice was never a stable basis for the national struggle as the poor were required to sacrifice immensely more than the middle class. However, shared enmity provides a more powerful, and a more familiar, basis. Now, those poor working-class Indians would be given a target other than the government to direct their ire and frustration. And when the deaths pile up, God forbid, Muslims will be blamed for State incapacity. National unity would again be restored on the foundation of Muslim demonisation.

Dangerous consequences

Some might protest here that this is a failure of the BJP’s version of nationalism. But we must remember that the BJP today owns the issue of nationalism, and defines it. In terms of public imagination, popular culture and state ideology, the BJP’s nationalism is mainstream, all other conceptions of nationalism are relegated to the margins. Which is why opposition parties, such as the Aam Aadmi Party, are forced to acquiesce, in varying extents, to BJP’s brand of nationalism in order to win popular support.

This failure presents two dark implications for Indian Muslims, one immediate and the other at a broader level. At the immediate level, this opens up the possibility of a dangerous escalation of prejudice and violence directed at them. During times of crisis, people revert to their tribal identities and search for ‘Others’ to blame for their problems. Pandemics have a long history of scapegoating, right from the Bubonic Plague in the fourteenth century (or ‘Black Death’) where Jews were accused of poisoning wells and spreading the contagion. During the pandemic’s peak in Europe, from 1348 to 1351, more than 200 Jewish communities in various towns were wiped out based on such rumours and innuendo. Even in the modern United States of the early 1990s, Haitians suffered discrimination and violence after being stigmatised as carriers of AIDS.

The broader implication is of the permanence of Muslim exclusion from the Indian nationhood. If Muslims can’t be part of any collective national effort, and worse, still be the perpetual enemy around which the struggle is organised, then there is no possibility left for their integration in the national mainstream. If PM Modi doesn’t immediately switch course and rein in his media supporters and social media apparatchiks, the incalculably dangerous effects of communalising this coronavirus would long outlast the pandemic itself.

The author is a research associate at the Centre for Policy Research, Delhi. Views are personal.

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144 COMMENTS

An action of Muslim individual or group is considered as an action of all Muslims and Muslims haplessly defend it. If we go by their terms BJP gave seat and elected a Terrorist to the parliament, means the people who voted and the person who gave seat all should be Terrorist.

If we roll back prior to demolition of Babri Masjid, BJP tried hard to come to power with development Mantra but failed. So, the solution they found is religious divide which worked well in Gujarat implemented by Modi & Shah. RSS put Shah in charge along with Advani and they planned the strategy. The time was ripe with telecast of Mahabharat & Ramayana due to which Ram / Ayodhya intoxicated every Hindu mind. They along with VHP organised Ram Janma Bhoomi classes across India, gave fabricated classes to attendees and portrayed Muslims as their no.1 enemy. This worked and BJP came to power which was ample proof for them that to be in power they need to divided Hindus & Muslims.

The author has nuanced the circumstances that have had taken place in past few days. He also mentions that how Tableeghi Jamaat became the scapegoat of the circumstance. But when citing the example of other temples and congregation, he fails to understand one basic condition that people who had attended those congregation were not already affected. Most of the people of Tableeghi Jamaat were positive even before joining the congregation. Your nuanced analysis is commendable but your biased opinion about how muslims are being depicted as “OTHERS” is condemnable. If you analyse or write something, analyse it fron both the perspective. Just don’t let your self to be in the shell of discriminatory history because you can’t justify every atrocities by claiming that the “others” have suffered discrimination.

Mr Ali , if the people in the Tablighi Jamaat were flouting the law and their leader was spreading hatred against non Muslims then it should be explicitly mentioned ,

This is also a kind of fascism , if you say free press then there should be every right to clearly write about any religion , why is it that in India non Muslims being scared of Muslims and being bullied by Muslims will be considered as secularism ,

Your logic that people in this particular religious gathering are half educated is indeed a rhetoric as you very well know it is a well presented lie that Muslims have been using for the past 100 years.

Being liberated means not being able to write English only , it means you can write about anyone and especially when an incident like this happens where it is clear that there is an agenda against the nation,

Try to be a little more liberal and think what damage the mughal dynasty and communists have done to India , try to have an in-depth knowledge about the true history of India , starting from Raja Dahir and Mohd. Bin Qasim. Try to find out why Indian Muslim clerics and communists selectively pick the barbaric and tyrant names only to define Islam and try to brainwash the Indian subcontinent .

Fear of a Hindu uprising maybe , I say it is unrealistic as one Hindu always criticizes other , but as it is taught in Jumma prayers that may Allah make you victorious over kafirs , a Muslim never opposes other .

Have a happy Ghazwa E Hind , Mr. Ali , I truly hope the lord is with you in this fight to defeat Kaffirs, because if by mistake Allah is with the Hindus, then you’ll have the other side of the coin

Please don’t try to make it hindu muslim . The print always do these things and then you try to villian other people but this time everything is crystal clear we know some stupid people did some stupid things every religion has already closed their place of worship because they put humanity first and religion second but few idiot didn’t understand so support if they are not when they are wrong

What this article shows is that the whole peaceful community is divided into two groups. One the fundamentalists hell bent upon destroying anything and everything, and the second who conveniently claim victimhood . The author belongs to the second group. This peaceful community rarely lets any other community live in peace.

Mr. Asim Ali, you say just over 100 Tabligi Jamat were positive, it turned out to be more than 600. All these people went intentionally to different parts of India and hid in Masjids. The foreign prechers were on Tourist visas and his the fact. These people tried to flee the country. How come you forget that these people were roaming naked in front of lady nurses, made leud remarks against them, spat on doctors and purposely spat in open. How can you call these people even human? I wish you had strongly condemned these facts and had lashes the leaders like Owaisi and Maulanas. How can you forget that Muslims people in Indore chased away doctors, threw stones at them, threatened Asha workers. Certainly these are beasts and need to be shot ded on the spot. Who would want such people. Forget the religion, but the media is pointing to the behaviour of the people and the people turned out to be Muslims with 100 percent.

How the idiots you are, vil uh talk about Filthy Hindus who r propogating Drinking Cow Urine, eating Cow Dung, beating Thallis, drums, Shouting Crackers just like these swines have won World Cup..
You have created a lot of problems in Indian bcoz of ur dirty brain and ideology filled with Gobar.. A BJP lady leader was seen firing in celebration of Corona in open public.. What a brain Uh hv got. Tableeghi Jamaat already wrote to Police to let them go, bcoz they were struck and that was unfortunate but targetting muslims this is ur sick ideology.. Hindus r worse creatures on earth, they r brainless, hippocrats, cowards, drink Urines & r most savage nation on earth.. Feeling Shame on You and get some life you idiot..

You must be totally drunk, no wonder you have written a totally one sided article Mr. Asim Ali. Muslims all over the world hate Kafirs and use everything made by kafirs. Even the phone you use is made by kafirs. You conveniently forgot to mention that about 30 percent of totla positive cases are because of Tabligi Jamat, who behaved like beasts by spitting on doctors, roaming naked, in Indore Muslims threw stones at people who came to help them, they chased away doctors and nurses. The height of nonsense is you don’t speak of these things and call your a scapegoat. You need to introspect, which you will never because it is in your DNA. If these acts by people are reprehensible then how religion comes in picture. Go out in geoups and hit all these beasts with boulders and ask them to behave with civil sense if you call yourself a child of your father

This author should not live in India anymore. Manipulating facts is a way of life by this author. Let him emigrate to Pakistan .
Muslims in India employ devious methods to destroy India, and when caught beg for empathy, sympathy due to a ” misunderstanding”

This community( most of them) is a virus now for India .
Check out history of attacks on the Hindus..26/11, Akshardham, parliament shoot out , killing of thousands of innocent hindu Pandits in Kashmir..and hundreds of other incidents . No amount of justification can work anymore .

The “peacefuls” breed like rats and have increased their population from 9.8% in the 1950s to nearly 15% today. They will continue to breed like cockroaches until they hit 20% of the Indian population.
The “peacefuls” need to be sterilized completely in order to get rid of Islamic virus from India’s soil. If we sterilize 200,000 Muslim men a day, then in 2 years we will sterilize all 100 million Muslim men in India.
The Muslim invaders will then gradually die off, and by the end of the 21st century, India will be Muslim free.
Muslims are invaders who invaded India’s land in 1200 AD, and we need to get rid of them as they pose a threat to 5000 year old Indian civilization. Muslims have killed 80 million Hindus and destroyed 40,000 Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain temples in India.

Its surprising that you need to play victimhood for everything wrong done by Jamat followers and you have audacity to call them scapegoats. Even if a fraction of time spent on defending these would have been spent on talking sense to them, things would have been much better. An individual doing a mistake/ crime is one thing, when it happens in a collective planned manner (Ref behaviour of Jamati’s when they were quarantined at various places; misuse of tourist VISAs to do religious preaching, attack on doctors in various part of countries, guys openly saying on TV that they will not follow govt and will bring corona to India etc). And you expect countrymen to ignore it. The problem is people like author expect first religion of wrong doers is to be taken into account before criticizing wrong behaviour. Ignoring wrongdoings had never brought peace/ harmony/ law & order anywhere in the world history. Instead of strongly condemning extremely ugly & criminal behaviour of these people, authors worry is his fellow religionists caught red handed doing unimaginable mean behaviours. People like this are main reason for isolation feelings of his fellow religionists.

What can you expect from him…. playing victim and hiding agendas is a policy since 1947 . Every move of govt is taken as religious by them…. in fact as the govt has been blamed being religion biased there is no harm to take some decisions based on religion.

The Jamat never sparked those “communal” fire. It was the behaviour of the Jamat later that those fuelled all this.
There was no cooperation from those infected people when the doctors and health workers came for their own rescue.
They were being brainwashed this entire time in that Jamat to not follow govt orders and continue meeting for Namaz, since the lockdown was just a way to divide muslims.
The patients who were been taken to the isolation camps spat everywhere including doctors and police officials (youtube all these claims I’m making)
They were reported to be misbehaving with the nurses at the camps, while not wearing lowers and making absurd gestures towards them.
Which is quite believable since they have no respect for the women in their own community & family, what do you expect out of them for others.
There are multiple videos floating on the internet as well where the doctors who came to screen the people attending the event were seen running for their lives as the entire neighbourhood was pelting stones and hiting them with iron rods.
These action of the author’s community was the real reason the communal war sparked.
But he, like most of his community, has been conditioned to not accept flaws of his community, because they’re not allowed to. They’ll be thrown out.
Unlike all the religion in the world, where people can question their beliefs, they are hardcoded to blindly follow and preach whatever their beloved and illiterate clerics say.

Please reply with facts not useless platitudes,do you have any reply for the despicable anti national,anti humanity behaviour of the Tableghis ,simply playing victim card is not going to work anymore,the facts are there for all to see,not a word of condemnation has been uttered by you ahainst the Tableghis Why?

This is the abuse of journalism and worst kind of reporting.
People who are clearly against the nation , hitting doctors, running naked in hospitals ,spitting on doctors and making mockery of the social distancing are scape goats.

This type of journalism is like a cancer. Stop crying communalism and look at the facts.

Misinformed article. Tirupati temple was not open at the time of jamaat meet. The article does not mention anything about misbehaviour of jamaatis.
The author is highly prejudiced and conveniently ignored many facts.

Wonder why didn’t you call Nirbhaya’s killers scapegoats.. if you are so into calling perpetrators scapegoats.. it scares me to even think how badly you would have reacted if this happened in Kumbh.. hypocrites!

Arnab is at fault. The whole media is potraying u in bad colours. Just one question for u:

Do u live in this country called India. Just once think honestly. U will get ur answers urself. If not then no one can change ur views and there is no point having any opinion. I can post a comment for your views only when u consider urself an Indian more than your religious or social beliefs.

Theprint I disagree with your views, the government is not trying to spread communalism as they don’t want to create this cause then it will blow back on them at this time ,this is This aaj tak reporter was covering a area where bus were taking these people and suddenly policeman starting closing windows, the reporter asked why are you closing windows and the policeman said they were spitting outside which we could see on the video, they running naked in hospital and making sexual jestures in some ghaziabad hospital.
Lapses are at policemen end where they were not able to follow orders when it was told no mass gathering. Handling thousands of people need huge amount of force which was not provided urgently I suppose.

After reading the heading, I just started looking for the name of the author and I found he belongs to the religion of piece and I didn’t bother to read rest of the article. This POS is not even worth reading. PRINT is new Madarsa for Muzzies

Agree with some of the things.
10% of Muslims are responsible for most of the irresponsible acts including terrorism and such. The remaining 90% are same people who are getting blamed unnecessarily.
However one thing I am not able to understand. Why is the 90% silent about the atrocities of the 10% .
Why don’t the raise their voice and condemn it instead of supporting them indirectly, like this author.

Author should introspect why Muslims behave like this. Some muslims on Tik Tok were behaving as if coronavirus is a gift from Allah to destroy non muslims.

Why should Muslims always be obstructionist and Anti social. Do they lack common sense? Or is it because they blindly follow a foolish illiterate mullah who knows nothing more than solidifying his position in the Muslim community and claims to speak Allah’s words?

You are misleading people on Tirupati Temple, Vide
Tirumala temple closes gates after one COVID-19 suspected …www.deccanherald.com › National › South
Mar 20, 2020 – The Tirupati Venkateswara temple would be closed for pilgrim darshan for one week beginning Friday noon, because of Covid-19. All temple

What next.. the brigade of commies,so called liberals and pro-Islamists who are infesting the print, electronic & social media news narrative both the global and domestic will cry that India is using corona virus to oppress the peace loving innocent dow like muslims who cry for secularism where they are minority and impose Sharia laws where they are majority, eliminating all other religious minority.Another Shaheen bagh or some other protest disrupting the country to lift all the cases filed for wilful spreading of deadly virus, indecent behaviour who are treating them .Humanism comes first then nationalism and then secularism which treats all the religious identities equal.Citizens of this country are following strict lockdown measures to mitigate the virusband then an incident like this .Definitely it warrants a reaction and condemnation from all quarters.As usual then comes an article pointing fingers at the scoitey rather than the culprits what a shame.By culprits I don’t mean being infected but disobeying all the reguations and the behaviour at quarantine centers.
I am still waiting for the articles of this death blow on secularism narrative to be followed and highlighted in The Hindu ,Telegraph,The guardian ,the BBC and Oh yes the videos from Akash Banerjee and Dhruv Rathee

The writer seems to be living in a world of ivory tower with little relation to the ground reality. The writer intends to give an impression that the Hindus were waiting for an issue to pounce upon Muslims. Nothing could be further from truth. Irrespective of what media portrays, most of the Indians are staunchly secular for whom all religious people are equal. The mistake/blunder committed by Tableegi Jamaat is so horrendous and disastrous for the entire nation that it must be condemned in no uncertain words. When Hindus exercise their legitimate right to criticize, the Muslims start defending the indefensible and then it gets ugly. The problem is not the communal nature of Hindus. The problem is the inability of Muslims to rise above their religious identity and call spade a spade. The nation feels legitimately outraged at the audacity of Muslim communities to attack healthworkers in different parts of the country including UP, Bihar, MP and Gujarat. Those who can’t criticise these acts which threaten the interests of the nation don’t belong here.

Azim Ali,
You do not have any Moral grounds to preach the majority Indians, where you live with peace and dignity. The minority that was converted in the Era of Invaders rule have forgotten their past. Don’t blame others for your fate. It is you who’s actions are to blamed.

Then what do you suggest instead of fighting Pandemic Indians should run after fighting Muslims.,and try to wipe this community away.This shows your humanity,even at this time You can only think of hatred,as media have put inside your head.

Very true
It’s the Hindus who pelted stones at doctors and police
It’s the Hindus who attended markaz and now fighting against quarantine
It’s the Hindus who are spitting everywhere and throwing lewd comments against grand daughters aged Nurses
It’s Hindus who are walking naked in hospital wards
If all the above is true then I am Donald Trump

This channel is already communal.
Author did not said a word
Why??
1) Muslim are spitting on doctor
2) attacking police, nurses..
In bangluru,Bihar ,mp,Jharkhand..
….
The is the drama which is played by this pseudo secular jihadi journalist..
….
Hello Mr. Jihadi writer first tell your mad jihadi that do not spit on doctor…
…..

Author is a blind, stupid, Hard core muslim. He will find fault with everything the present govt does. He is trying to mislead the public with tirumala temple episode. Temple was closed immediately upon govt order and I live there. Infact every religion has mostly shown sense except Islam…. but they are asked to roam to prove their faith in Allah by their clerics. Educated ppl support that Nizamuddin market congregation. Their irresponsible gathering is going to infect many many innocents for no fault of theirs. What a shame this big media house is printing his bullshit of an opinion supporting Muslims.

the author showed his true colors with the pen in this article, no doubt he is a idiot but what surprise me even more that even educated muslims in india are pro muslims first then a indian, those bunch of idiots spited on way to hospital from the bus, creating nauseous, making adultery vulgar comments on nurses of the hospital, how the hell someone can take a stand with those idiots, the author words doesn’t seems to be written by a idiot person but rather by a pro jihadi, shame one you the print, shame on you

It was a nice April fools article …. Oh!! The Author is Mr Asim Ali then may be he is not joking but just f…. ing blind to see the horrendous mistake.. his Jamaat did to public health safety… u idiots just want to play the victim card do u really think people cant see through u, its just we have ignored all these years… Stop posting BS……

I don’t know why the author is trying to show sympathy for that people. I mean they should not be called people. Even animals are better then them. They are spitting, trying to kill Dr. can you imagine this and PM modi has not ordered shoot at sight for them. They are polluting our country. Should be thrown out ASAP.

The author is an idiot. Period. The muslim mind is unable to operate as a minority. They have a different operating system. It doesnt support modern apps. Protestations for the muslim cause are now boring and outdated and now only an evidence of a childlike intellect.

The author is himself a muslim, what else do you expect him to write. He is just penning down his own twisted thoughts. The old victim card. Reality is that these people have screwed the country big time.

Religious Gatherings are causing problems all over the world. Saudi Arabia closed Makkah for travellers and this is clear message that gatherings are prohibited to Muslims. Knowledgeable Muslims all over the world are following the guidelines. Rest is responsibility of acting govt to take measures at the right time, as ultimately most citizens are callous and dependent on govt action to behave responsibly. In general, the ruling govt does not own responsibility on any situation and engages public focus on religious hate. It is tiring. With regards to the article, the writer shows clear bias and enveloped hate. One awareness, Allah is arabic word for God. Please don’t stereotype some people’s actions as all Muslims behaviour. Love

Clearly it’s a jihad by the terrorists. You are all putting the life of all citizens at risk in the name of secularism. Please criminals should be punished even if he is a Muslim. Why you are all hiding their criminal activities

Chill, have some antacids. Majprity indians are immune to your proaganda, i read this article just for the lolz,to see how much blatantly beligerant print articles can be on white washing crimes from a certain religious group. Prefixes like corona, love etc or not, Jihad exists, everyone knows its a clear and present danger. No body care about your opinion you psudo secularist propagandists.

Asim Ali TJ is not a scapegoat, they are endangering the healthcare workers helping them by not cooperating with them and even spitting on them and call them as being scapegoats. Rather these ppl who are not cooperating should be lined up and shot. I am sure you have come across various videos and news reports of the same, but since you work for this biased publication, i cant help it but have pity on you.

Calling willful defaulters as scapegoats- when all other creeds, religions, classes, castes, regions, languages and ethnicities are standing in unison, is treachery added on the sophistry of the first order.
As a Muslim, you must stop defending the indefensible. You must stop carrying a perpetual victim card. Just drop the act. The blame is on you and you only- there are no jews, Hindus, RSS, America, Christians, Blacks or Whites to blame this time.

I am amused by the protestations of the author for Secularism.The Indian Muslim is fortunate that they have the privilege of living in a secular democracy with its Constitution guaranteeing all fundamental rights including the unfettered right to practice their religion.I have lived in several Muslim countries and in none of them the non-muslims have such privileges. During Ramadan,a non-muslim has to compulsorily abide by the ban on eating during the day in public places including offices.In Kerala where the Muslims constitute nearly a third of the population,it is the Indian Union Muslim League which rules the roost.And their claims to Secularism is laughable.The Muslim dominated areas in north Kerala was once described as Mini-Pakistan by Mr.E.K.Nayanar,the Communist Party Chief Minister of Kerala at the time.There was a time in the fifties and sixties when Kerala Muslims were first Malayalees and the religious identity was secondary.But now you hear of Kerala Muslims join ISIS and the Taliban and even participate by leading the attack on the Kabul Gurudwara.Incidentally the RSS is virtually uneffective in Kerala.The painful impression is that there is someting in ISLAM which makes it difficult for co-existing with other religions .Witness the ethnic cleansimg of Kashmiri Pandits in Muslim majority Kashmir valley.Similarly the exodus of non-muslim minorities from Pakistan and Bangladesh to India.Even Egypt is reported to be causing the disappearance of minority Coptic Christians
In the instant case of the Nizamuddin congregation,the preacher is reported to have exhorted the congregation to violate the rules of social distancing.
So this was a knowingly committed disobedience.The net result is that the participants have knowingly become super spreaders of the Corona Virus.

The Print And its journalist.. Asim Ali…..
As a big hypocrite you are…. blindly supporting those criminals belonging to your religion…..I being a simple Indian, my first priority is my nation only and not religion…..I can just simply say that you being a religious fuck….no one is blind here and India does not deserve shit like you.

Pained to see the communal ism being spread for a misjudge act by the Jamaat and the Govt. hand in hand to be held responsible. Since many weeks we were looking forward towards news coming from China about the unfolding act of the virus which took thousands of lives in mainland China and now in Europe and America bitterly hit. It was time to come together to fight this menace, instead the rightist took to the news channels blaming the Markaz solely responsible for the spread of virus. It is a bizarre example how we level the responsibility of the Govt institutions to cover their inability of acting in time for such a deadly virus spread. The Markaz equally should have distanced itself from inviting the foreign national at a time when security of each individual was put at task. Simply spreading the idea of waiting the judgement of Almighty will be a poor approach towards a religion whose flexibility and tolerance is well known. I know this Jamaat since a long time wherein 90% of its cadres are not educated and hygiene remains a key area to be compromised at all levels of its activities. Surprising that Islam teacher to be clean and maintain highest level of hygiene wherein its own people remains at a compromise towards cleanliness. The media hunt is common since last two decades are instant judgement in its harshest language is used to demonize Islam and Muslims. Deliberately being under hammer of communal elements means little scope of individual accountability by the Govt. to keep these elements at bay. After the communal violence in New Delhi recently tempers were high and thus the Jamaat and Markaz gave a huge scope for the rightist to spew more venom and the social media and television channels instead on focus on how to provide safety and security to the citizens are pointing blames 24×7 on the Jamaat and more on the Islam. It seams these channels have already being tuned by the Govt. in giving judgements before the police and investigating agencies even start the investigation to level the area of responsibility on individual . It is not a talk of town but a nation whose people feels that the Jamaat is solely responsible to spread the virus. I question this by asking who spread this virus in Europe and America where the ratio of fatalities is highest and continues beyond our counts. India still remains a place where the virus still has not gone out of control and thanks to the Almighty who prevented this. Otherwise we were busy in changing or encroaching the fallen Governments in the states and creating more numbers for the Rajya Sabha seats. After many lives lost on regular basis in road accidents , health issues like cancer and diabetics we could not level any blame game,, riots remains exceptional . But here the Markaz and Tabliqh Jamaat became a scape goat for the news anchors being allotted targets to achieve.

While I agree with you on most counts, the misbehaviour of Jamaat members (towards doctors and other healthcare providers) is being reported through every media source. I would, respectfully, like to know your views on this matter.

Just to remind him
There are 210 UN designated terror outfits
192 belong to one religion
11 belong to communists
7 belong to all other religions combined
Did media banned them?
May be he has not seen the video of his ilk pelting stones at doctors and nurses
May be he was selectively blind when his cult kept on breaking law and kept on gathering for prayers even after restrictions
May be uneducated brothers need not follow law as they haven’t read it

It will be communalised my friend because we don’t find your community criticising it.
Where were you when there were videos saying that corona will kill only non muslims. Why don’t you speak on the their behaviour with our forces,our doctors.
It is you who is communalising it. We are saying the truth and you have to hear it.
When all mandir,churches,gurudwaras are closed , why can’t you shut down all the mosques in the time of emergency. And please don’t give us shitty reasons of what you preach.
If corona spreads in this country it is your community which should take its moral responsibility

I Agree Your points we can’t see this in religious Tone, I’m from AP, more than 200 were attended but only 80 were reported
1) why remaining people, not volunteerly came out and join in quarantine.
2) In Indore, they are attacking Medical officials and doctors in Hyd Hospital.
I have so many Muslim friends from childhood but after seeing this my humanity dies. Sorry to say these I will never associate with anyone

yess saab , it’s natural & i feel sorrry that u guys r stigmatized & it would have hurted me also if i were a muslim too,but i wanna give some reasons that why u guys r being stigmatized & it’s not baseless as u think;
*One week back ,a group of muslims led by brothers tajuddin & qutubuddin assaulted policemen in Bengaluru ,during their duty of lockdown ,& nxt day when qutubuddin was being arrested he again assaulted a lady constable ,then tried to flee ,after which police shooted to his legs.
*Doctors were atttacked with stones by minorities as u say ,when they went for surveying in Indore.
*the same happened with ASHA workers in Bengaluru , additionally involving the provokement by a local mosque.
*In Ghaziabad ,the tabhligi jammat patients were being quarantined in a gov. hospital ,during which they roamed naked & made obscene comments on lady nurses.
*these tabligi jammatis also refused testing at many centres ,even after knowing their mistake.
*In Hyderabad ,the brother of a tabligi jamaat patient who succumbed to covid , assaulted doctor brutally,,as if doctors killed the jamaat patient.
*and by the way i suspect tabligi jamaat as a organisation also,becaz it’s followers r soo radical & uncooperative with health agencies.
( by the way i didn’t include tabligi jammat conference in it,as it was also one of the reason,but I don’t want to communalize & also it had happened before lockdown enforcement)

The title of the article “Coronavirus was a test of secular nationalism” proves that the author is the biggest communal person and wants to incite people of India. What has coronavirus got to do with secularism? Does the author suggest that there is a communal way of handling the epidemic and India is doing it that way? Do we need a pandemic to demonstrate this? Criticism of this event has been fact-based and measured. Calling a spade a spade is not being communal.

This is a very well written article. It is not “opinionated”; it cites references to facts, unlike the “claims”. Great work! I wish all journalists were brave as you.
I too was hopeful that this pandemic will unite as towards a common cause and appreciated the leadership qualities shown by our PM and rest of authorities. But the media spinning this on the communal aspect, failed the efforts of our nation. Coronavirus is a solvable problem, sponsored communalism is more difficult.

Please see the conduct of all those preachers who are in quarantine. They are spitting on the medical staff and unruly in the conduct. Once you defend them, you are part of the problem. Muslim had the great opportunity to support the nation in the fight against corona, sad to see that they are on the side of the virus . The task of all those Muslims who are nationalist and understand the reality of the outbreak has become more difficult now.

Are you all crazy or you have some sense left in you?
Every expletive is less for you, man. I understand being an Indian you ought to be liberal, but this is absurd. Painting communalism via media! You are the best example of media- terrorism sir

I am now very afraid of Muslims. Ali is just defending his Islamic ideology by waging religious divide. He introduced Tirupati temple example but deliberately did not say that temple authorities do not violate any instruction of government and positively acted for containment of Corona virus spread. But these Muslims deliberately spread Corona virus and making India more vulnerable.

Adam Ali the the jamat spreader has inflicted damage on my whole Street were more than 8 children’s are affected and still they are saying that they will spit in the street and continue group namaz in there house iam an ordinary middle class secular citizen what is the mistake if the children why you people are not even willing to understand that and immediately playing political blame and vicitim card
Here the vicitim is innocent children on whom the knowing jamat returnee spread what is your answer for that
Even now the entire hospital doctors are not discriminating they are treating with compassion but there also why you people are asking halaal food and spitting in hospital
Iam just an ordinary person with no political understanding iam asking humanity but why even at this hour you people are not willing to something for the sake of humanity
PL answer this as a human being

Must say, this winter have some misplaced gutts or total free time to write such an article and The Print has nothing else to publish. Yes, COVID19 has no religious bias and that is exactly what was expected to be understood by the M community. And what is the educated class doing in this community, no world community or mankind feeling, a selfish fetish and with no obvious gain; what a way to be fooled by a few and for what, it keeps defying which Dar ul are they waiting for.

Why play victim card always? Is your religion greater than constitution? Not following the law of the land. Instead of introspection in your community whataboutery as usual. Secularism is two way road. Minority can be questioned too for their act . Is spitting, stone pelting your birth right. Some media channels over hyped this but what you are doing… Hiding the act of organizer. Then you are not secular and for God sake stop acting like that you are secular and follow the law of the land. Don’t defend the wrong act of a community.

This article is rubbish…an effort to give the right twist to the wrong doings of Jamaat.
Common people like us, know exactly what journalist like the author of this article is trying to do.
I am concerned as a citizen…not from coronavirus…since I know that government agencies, the doctors, medical staff n paramedics, the police, the industries and practically everyone is taking effort to stop the spread…I am concerned, infact I am scared, from the poisonous mindset of muslims and their jamaats.
We can see numerous organisation, people of different religion (but not muslims) trying to help India by arranging food, daily supplies etc. for the poor, for police, for doctors ….
my question to the author of this article is, can he share any pictures or videos that depicts muslim organisation or even a single muslim individual trying to help others in a crisis situation like this?
Perhaps the author will be deeply disappointed just like me.

This article is rubbish…an effort to give the right twist to the wrong doings of Jamaat.
Common people like us, know exactly what journalist like the author of this article is trying to do.
I am concerned as a citizen…not from coronavirus…since I know that government agencies, the doctors, medical staff n paramedics, the police, the industries and practically everyone is taking effort to stop the spread…I am concerned, infact I am scared, from the poisonous mindset of muslims and their jamaats.
We can see numerous organisation, people of different religion (but not muslims) trying to help India by arranging food, daily supplies etc. for the poor, for police, for doctors ….
my question to the author of this article is, can he share any pictures or videos that depicts muslim organisation or even a single muslim individual trying to help others in a crisis situation like this?
Perhaps the author will be deeply disappointed just like me.

Defying the order of the Government was wrong, but why do you need to refer to the Jamaat as ‘Muslims’? Most of us Muslims have been in our homes, respecting the PM’s orders like any other citizen should. So how does that make all of us defiant? Even we are disappointed with the actions of the institution, but the media needs to stop sensationalisng everything. Lakhs of migrants were roaming this week, do you reckon they’re not going to be a hotspot of transmission anytime soon? Who will you blame then?

Why print allowed them to spread virus even when Kejriwal on 13th instructed not to participate in mass in any religious functions.
Why Sonia Gandhi’s is supporting those responsible for spreading of virus?
Will Sonia Gandhi accept such thing in Italy if she becomes the president of Italy?
Why double standard for India and Italy?
Why gandhis are silent now vote bank?
Will print accept such stupid thing if happens in USA?

Mullas and their followers not following lockdown rules in India. Many of them already infected and now they hide in their community. Intentioly or unintentionally they spread virus.
Police can’t handle them. Now Army is only option for them.

What a lie, what a shame . Injustice with his own profession and injustice with the mighty Pen. An Anchor on tv can speak rheotric in the heat of argument. But an author , what a liar . It is totaly haram , how he painted all media and every one bikau and like we all are sold . Listen you mr liability we are doing it on will and to save our country and society in which u also included and religio. How pathetic this article is.

Shame on you The Print to publish such an opinion.
It is not just a mistake as the author admits.
Mr Said defied orders, exhorted people to remain and more to join in the mosque for the tabligh. The preachers went all over India and his from surveillances irresponsibly with utter disregard to public safety. It is not religious issue at all it is criminal and causing wilful harm with an intent to kill people…Plain murder…. Period.

Mr. Asim Ali, after reading your article, I have a question for you,which decent human being(Musi or otherwise) will start spitting on other people & out of the buses when they knew they could be carrying life threatening infections.
Have you ever wondered that the alienation you guys cry about is because you yourself never see yourself as Indians, only as musi & that is all you care about.
Its shameful. Please stop playing the victim card.

Instead of blaming majority you should first lecture your moulvis and moulanas to behave. When other minority communities like Christians, Shikhs, Jains, parasi etc. have no problem to lead life peacefully with majority, then why only Muslims have a problem. First you look within. Put nation first above your faith.

Comparing Tablighi Jamaat and Tirupati or other Hindu temples is unfair and a case of false equivalence. The Tablighi Chief said on video “There is no need to follow the government’s advisories on social distancing. It is a govt measure meant to divide Muslims. Muslims should come to the mosque as usual”. Whereas that is not the case with Tirupathi or any other Hindu temple. No Hindu chief made any statements asking Hindus to ignore govt advice.

You are absolutely spot on. But all the author of this article does is blame the right wing and confuse this issue with nationalism. What can the governement to except taking stringent action if some people decide to flout government guidelines deliberately and terrorise others. After all every human being cares for his or her life and has the basic Instinct of warding off anything that poses a threat to their lives. Now imagine the scenario when many of these from the Nizamuddin markaz have gone and melted in different Indian states and infected, God knows how many ? So who is at the receiving end ? The one who is following the govt instructions and staying indoors or the one who deliberately goes and spreads it ? The author of the article cleverly avoids mentioning of the call given by the Markaz chief to disobey govt orders ? Why ? This is such dishonest and biased journalism. The public anger is against this blatant flouting of rules. To bring BJP and Republic media into it is trying to trivialise the issue . Arnab is doing his job and so are the people on social media who are scared and concerned about their own safety. To blame them is nothing but the usual diversionary tactic by those who refuse to call spade a spade.

The comments and venom which BJP supportes including media can play havoc and at a time when entire attention of government should focus on virus and not to maintain law and order problem. Yes, let the government punish the organisation and its head, but government cannot simply keep quite whe communal virus is spread deliberately. What happen if some one start counting Tirupati visitors with agfecred patients.

You call all the critics here bjp supporters? Now isnt that a bit hypocritical? Also why always this specific community has problems in the world ? Why does this specific community commit horrendous crimes? Arent you ashamed of your hypocrisy? Shame on this bastards , we had our cases controlled in gujarat untill these religious extrimists showed their colours and now owr lives are at risks . This authour too is just as much of a hypocrite as this so called news outlet itself .

Now I dont want to give money to PM fund, just because my hard earned money will go to those people, who are spitting on healthcare workers, are spreading the virus, creating a ruckus in the quarantine centers, and are behaving like criminals, and all without an iota of guilt. As usual they (including this writer) are playing the victim card. Without these Tabligies India would have stopped the spread of virus by the first week of April. What they dont realize is that the act of defying the government has huge repercussions on the economy and all the Indians. So Mr Asim Ali, what do you expect the rest of us to do? Celebrate what Tabilgies have done? Congratulate them? Thank Them?

Nationalism always see threats from different cultutre practcid and not adjusting to present day democratic human values especially from foreign cultures even though settled hundred s of years in this land and always showing dis respect to national ethos like flag and natioal anthem. all this is witnessed . In every country this is the issue
So people can understand this is not 10 th century. Somajority community show concern of nationalism.

News anchors and political commentators are naming Jamaat specifically. It is you who want to muddy the waters by equating the Jamaat with all Muslims. What do you gain by deliberately spreading hatred? Maybe you are in the pay of some agencies to actively spread discord in our country in this difficult times? The views of the Jamaat are well known. They disregarded the Delhi government’s orders of prohibiting the assembly of 200 on the 13th, and also the advice of self quarantine for persons coming into India.
These facts are known to anyone interested in them. So again we ask you Mr.Ali, what is agenda behind your spreading communal hatred?

Integration of any minor community with major community rests with both communities identification or behaving speciicway to attract gives way for mutual distrust.people or citizen’s forget that we are enjoying fruits of civilization based on human values practised by major nstitions of decent democracies based on human values if some wants to. Negate such fruits it is the responsibility of the communitiy heads to advise against such activities.instead of giving sermons to other groups..Every body agrees we are in most dangerous situation which may wipe out hard earnwd institutul gaurente s so every person behaviour must be above narrow political religious values
Print may give name of authors in avisible way

Timeline of the decisions taken by the Indian government so far as per Outlook India

· January 17: Advisory issued to avoid travel to China

· January 18: Thermal screening started of passengers from China and Hong Kong.

· January 30: Strong advisory issued to avoid travel to China.

· February 3: E-visa facility suspended for Chinese citizens.

· February 22: Advisory issued to avoid travel to Singapore; Universal screening for flights from Kathmandu, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia.

· February 26: Advisory issued to avoid travel to Iran, Italy and Republic of Korea. Passengers coming from these countries to be screened, and may be quarantined based on screening and risk assessment.

· March 4: Universal screening of all International Flights. Quarantine or isolation at home or sent to hospital based on screening and risk profile

· March 5: Passengers from Italy or Republic of Korea need to get medical certificate before entry

· March 10, Home isolation: incoming international passengers should self-monitor health and follow government Dos and Dont: passengers with travel history to China, Hong Kong, Republic of Korea, Japan, Italy, Thailand, Singapore, Iran, Malaysia, France, Spain and Germany to undergo home quarantine for a period of 14 days from the date of their arrival

· March 11: Compulsory Quarantine- Incoming travellers (including Indians) arriving from or having visited China, Italy, Iran, Republic of Korea, France, Spain and Germany after February 15 shall be quarantined for a minimum period of 14 days.

· 16, 17, 19 March- Comprehensive advisory:

. March 16: Expanded compulsory quarantine for travellers from or through UAE, Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait for a minimum of 14 days.

Travel of passengers from member countries of the European Union, the European Free Trade Association, Turkey and United Kingdom to India totally prohibited

I quite understand the anguish in the writers piece. Without taking a communal line but at I am sure I will be allowed to take a societal view of the events. I have just one question to pose. Where was the social awareness and responsibility on the part of the organizers of the gathering. That there was an impending epidemic on hand was certainly known. That much of world view of things is certainly some thing one can expect from the Scholars who were talking. Further, as a responsible citizen, could they not have worked with the authorities to find solutions while keeping the congregation safe.The Jamaat certainly failed the test of good citizen, not just of India but of the world.
That the narrative is being twisted and exploited is ,well, secondary to the main event.

Also, why was the response of followers was so uneducated?
They knew it could be risky, they still did it.
Religion over humanity.!
The writer is just showing solidarity in the name of religion and has excluded logic and common sense from his rant.

This was a test for Indian Muslims to prove that they are not like the radicals of Taliban and Al Qaeda and that they fit into a secular society, that treats muslims minorities better than non muslim minorities in Islamic theocracies. Unfortunately, they have miserably failed. This is a self inflicted wound on their image and will take decades to heal. Hindus should be forgiven for Ostracising Muslims in public transport, work place and in the society, because Indian Muslim has given them no reason to be seen as a rustworthy citizen.

Being a Doctor can cow urine and cow dung help cure Covid 19 if it is the remedy then why don’t civilized society talk to WHO and make it available for fighting against virus. Good job great invention in the history of medicine.

Everyone àre commenting on the Jamaat. You are the one deliberately conflating the Organisation with all Muslims, and spreading poisonous hatred. You did not mention that the Delhi government on 12/13 March prohibited gathering of more than 200 people, and also asked nationals from the virus effected countries to self quarantine. The Markhaz not only flaunt these directions deliberately, they also actively asked followers to go and stay in their local mosques.
Many see this as a deliberate plan to spread this highly contagious virus throughout our country. And taking the above facts into consideration, this appears to be true.

It is time the author a Muslim does some self introspection as to why Muslims are always agitating against the majority religion, why they are not part of the mainstream? Ignoring their common heritage, Muslims pride themselves after foreign oppressors, favor tribal identities, pan islamic nationalism, being silent when atrocities are inflicted on non Muslims , take the recent Kabul bombing by an Kerala Muslim youth as an example! I am fed up of Muslim complaints about victimization. Please self introspect why Parsis, Jains, Christians, Sikhs are not disliked and only Muslims are?

The writer has amply said about the RW approach of maligning Muslims ,though there were dumbness in TJ in organising but what social media and the above comment makers are just plainly blaming the Muslim on anything

No matter the writer want to convey, the fact is Tirumala temple was closed the very next day the direction given by Andhra govt. Many temples and churches were also closed. Similarly Kejriwal govt issued prohibitory order on 13 March against large functions and gathering. Yesterday, they have taken out 2631 people and 617 hospitalised who have shown symptomsof Coronavirus, waiting for test results and rest were quarantined. Were they following Delhi govt order, even almost after 2 weeks. By the way, please understand, there were no reported cases from Tirumala temple and 9 have already died and many are hospitalized and quarantined. Please do not add secularism angle again to drive home your point, when you stand in a precarious position. Modi did not discriminate people and even today the treatment is same for everyone. If you wish, please check and inform about the facts of how many people not given food in Pakistan just because they Hindus, minority in that country. Dont play your minority card again. It will not help you.

Apparently in your shady attempts to condone the ignorant, arrogant and vile zelotry of some Muslims you are forgetting that what the Jamat did is against what Islamic jurisprudence itself says in relation to pandemics.
The problem is not the narrative of Arnab Goswami – but the narrative of Salafism – which does not recognise Democratic authority or the idea of any rule of law outside their Religious laws.